Should You Get a CCTV Drain Survey When Buying a House?
- If your drains are backed up, you may need a CCTV drain survey to see what caused the blockage.
- You must have clear access to your manhole covers.
- You may need a CCTV if you get a Build Over Agreement for a sewer or manhole.
CCTV drain survey: When buying a house, drainage problems can now be assessed with a CCTV drain survey, which harnesses hi-tech to check for present problems or factors that may cause future issues.
It lessens any upheaval a drainage survey would normally take. An operative places cameras where the drains can be observed and inspects them remotely.
The procedure is relatively inexpensive. It can cost you lots of money to fix a drain blockage. Jetting a drain can cost between £50 - £199 if it has a minor blockage, but in the case of a collapsed drain, you can expect to pay from a few £100s to possibly £1,000s to remedy it.
You might want to bargain with the seller if it looks like it will cost a lot to fix a problem, or you might even want to pull out.
Sometimes, a lender will even require that you get a drainage survey when buying a house – termed ‘pre-purchase drain survey’ – if they think a property has a drainage issue.
What is a CCTV drain survey?
It’s a drainage survey where specialists install high-resolution CCTV into the drains to a problem location, locations, or areas of concern.
Operatives place cameras into the drains using thin, flexible pipes. Once installed, the operatives can leave the property and work remotely on data sent through from cameras.
Once sufficient monitoring has occurred, the specialists can create a report about the issue/s, giving options and accompanying costs for remedy with recommendations.
Why do I need a CCTV drain survey?
- 1
Speed of installation/removal of cameras
Operatives who carry out a drain survey without CCTV equipment will take far longer in a property to conduct an inspection.
- 2
CCTV’s precision at finding the exact locations of issues
Once a fault’s been located, engineers can be far more accurate about targeting and fixing a problem without causing further damage to a property.
Andrew started his career in 2000 working within conveyancing solicitor firms and grew hands-on knowledge of a wide variety of conveyancing challenges and solutions. After helping in excess of 50,000 clients in his career, he uses all this experience within his article writing for SAM, mainstream media and his self published book How to Buy a House Without Killing Anyone.
Caragh is an excellent writer and copy editor of books, news articles and editorials. She has written extensively for SAM for a variety of conveyancing, survey, property law and mortgage-related articles.
